Community Health Notice

Published on 09 August 2025

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Murweh Shire Council Community Health Notice

Community Health Notice:

Detection of Naegleria fowleri in Murweh Shire Water Supplies

Date: 7 August 2025

Dear Residents of Murweh Shire

Murweh Shire Council is advising residents and visitors to Charleville and Augathella that Naegleria fowleri, a rare but potentially harmful organism, has recently been detected in the town water supplies. This detection follows a comprehensive water quality project commissioned by Queensland Health and undertaken by a Queensland university.

The project involved specialised testing not typically conducted by local water service providers.

Naegleria fowleri is a naturally occurring free-living amoeba commonly found in warm freshwater environments and soil. Only one species in this family of organisms is known to cause illness in humans. It can infect individuals when contaminated water enters the nose, potentially leading to a rare but almost always fatal brain infection known as Primary Amoebic Meningoencephalitis (PAM).

Importantly, Naegleria fowleri is not infectious via drinking or skin contact.

 Routine testing for this organism is not required under Council’s Drinking Water Quality Management Plan, and neither Murweh Shire Council nor Queensland Health routinely test for its presence.

Council is informed that only three laboratories in Australia have the capability to test for Naegleria fowleri, and as such, its presence has rarely been confirmed in regional water supplies.

The recent detection is the first known confirmation of Naegleria fowleri in the Charleville and Augathella water supplies, though it has long been understood that the risk of its presence exists in unchlorinated water sourced from the Great Artesian Basin—especially where water cools below 40°C.

For this reason, there is always a risk that Naegleria fowlers is present in all unchlorinated drinking water sources.

As a precaution, Council is currently arranging the collection of further water samples to identify the extent of Naegleria fowleri colonisation in the drinking water supplies serving the communities of Charleville and Augathella.

Samples will also be collected from the Morven supply as a precaution.

While Council and the Queensland Public Health Unit continues to monitor the situation, residents are urged to follow the below precautions to minimise any likelihood of infection:

  • Do not allow water to go up your nose when bathing, showering or washing your face;
  • supervise children when bathing, showering and washing their faces to prevent water from going up their nose;
  • don’t allow children to play unsupervised with hoses or sprinklers and teach them not to squirt water up their nose;
  • don’t put your head under water when bathing or swimming in pools filled with town water that has not been adequately chlorinated;
  • avoid slip-n-slides and other activities where it is difficult to prevent water from going up the nose; and
  • avoid using the water for any form of nasal irrigation or nasal lavage.

Because the risk of exposure is associated with water going up the nose, rather than consumption, it is not necessary to boil water for drinking, food preparation and personal hygiene.

Council assures residents that the drinking water in these communities remains safe for human consumption.

This advisory applies specifically to water provided by Murweh Shire Council.

If you use a private water supply, you may also be at risk.

Please consult Queensland Health's Safe Water on Rural Properties guidelines Safe water on rural properties for further advice.

For more information on Naegleria fowleri click on link below from the Queensland Government:

Naegleria Fowleri | Health and Wellbeing | Queensland Government

 

Yours faithfully

Bruce Scott

Chief Executive Officer

Murweh Shire Council

 

 

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